How To Train Your Bird Dog

Bird
dogs
are important if you are interested in bird hunting. They will
accompany you during your hunt and may lead to your success. Choosing the right
breed of dog is important, of course, but what's more important is the level of
training the dog receives. Some people prefer to hire professionals
to train their dogs but this cost money. The dog might also end up
only obeying the trainer and not the owner. A cheap alternative is to train the
dog yourself but it requires time and effort.

This quick guide will go over the basics on how to train bird dogs:

1.
First, spend some quality time with your dog. Get used to each other and
develop a good and loving relationship with your dog. Free up some time for
training your dog; it cannot be done overnight. With enough time spent on
training, the dog will eventually develop the skills for hunting.

2. Let your dog get
used to the outdoors. Let it roam around in an open surrounding with close
supervision. Bring your dog to different environments so that it can get used
to various terrains. You can also let your dog accompany you when you are
practicing with your gun so that the dog can get used to the sounds of gunfire.

3. Obedience
training is important as it is the foundation of the training process. A dog
should be trained to do basic commands such as sit, come, stay and stop. The
dog should master these first so that other training can proceed smoothly.

4. Learn distance
training. Sometimes when the dog is far away from you, it cannot hear you. You
may have to perform certain actions for the dog to follow. You can also use
sound whistles. This can prove to be beneficial once you start hunting.

5. Hunting dogs
need to learn how to retrieve birds. This command is usually taught when the
dog was just a puppy. The dog needs to retrieve the certain item and bring it
back to you.

6. Dogs respond
best to positive reinforcement and learn this way. When the dog has performed
well or obeyed your command, reward it with a treat.

Training a
bird dog takes time, patience and effort. However, all the hard work will pay
off when you realize that your dog is performing well in bird hunting.
You will earn a faithful companion to assist you in hunting.